


Amanai

by cayra



Category: Original Work
Genre: Community: smut_fest, Desert, Ghosts, M/M, Slash, Touareg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-09
Updated: 2012-02-09
Packaged: 2017-10-30 20:10:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/335596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cayra/pseuds/cayra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the rains do not come and raiders start attacking the Imahaq's trade routes, the Spirits send the order to move south, into new territories. Idir and Amanai need to learn to deal with those changes and overcome the differences of their clans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Amanai

**Author's Note:**

  * For [txilar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/txilar/gifts).



> This story is loosely based on the culture and legends of the Touareg people native to the Sahara desert.

Amanai

The camp was bustling with activity. About twenty big tents - set up in the valley between two jagged outcrops of stone, with a wellspring on the eastern side whose water trailed further east and south between the rocks in a small rivulet. Several groups of camels were pegged down around the camp's outer perimeter.

Idir counted them. "Looks like there are still one or two of the smaller clans missing," he observed, making his own mount kneel so he could help his aunt down from her litter.

Tiski was a tall, slender woman who would have towered over Idir, had she been able to stand straight. But sickness had taken away the ability to properly stand and walk from her, and if she had once been the most skillful rider of the Kel Agar, she now ruled her clan through well-placed advice and her strong connection to the Spirits.

She had been the one to call this rare meeting of clans. While all Imahaq considered themselves brothers, or at least cousins, the wadis and trade routes each clan claimed were guarded closely, some rivalry over resources remaining.

But this year, when the raids of a dark-skinned nomadic people from the north had grown more and more frequent, ambushing the trade caravans, raiding the camps to steal camels and women, the clans had joined efforts to defend themselves.

The dark-skinned ones moved in small, agile groups, driven to desperation it seemed by the long draught that had not left the Imahaq unscathed either. To stop the attacks, or even find their ever-moving camps in the shifting sands of the desert was nearly impossible and any scouting party had to rely on luck alone.

Now, the clan leaders had brought their people down here, to the southern outskirts of the Tafialt mountains, to hold council at Tiski's call.

The Spirits had spoken. And they had told Tiski to leave behind her homelands and travel far south, into the heart of the Sahara.

\---

Having left Tiski to continue conferring with the other clan chiefs in the morning, Idir had taken his camel out for a ride. Nothing far, just a few rounds around the camp, but both he and the animal had enjoyed it. On the way back, he had discovered that the stream ran down a small valley, sheltered from the busy camp by an uneven, steep incline. Since the terrain was a little too rough for his camel, he gave her the contents of his water skin and then climbed down himself to refill it. Then he made his unhurried way back to tether the camel with her brethren.

By the time he wandered back between the tents, the rest of the camp had woken as well. The sunshine lured out many of them to sit before their homes, working and chatting. Small cooking fires were rekindled everywhere in the camp.

He earned a few unfriendly looks from those whose chiefs opposed moving, who did not believe Tiski's words. One stocky old man grumbled something about insane hags and their uppity boys, pushing by Idir roughly. Idir stumbled and would have fallen, had the young man he had stumbled over not caught and pushed him back upright.

Growling, Idir turned to stare after the stocky man, but he had taken a turn and vanished between the tents already. "What an ass. Why can those people not shut up and listen to what they're told for once in a while?" he grumbled.

"Because it is not in their nature. But that might be just as well, blindly following orders brings only harm anyway."

Idir turned back and looked back down at the young man in whose lap he was nearly standing. He was mending some tools, seemingly not hampered by Idir's presence, the words spoken without looking up from what his hands were doing.

Eyes narrowed, Idir hunkered down beside him. "What do you mean by that?"

The young man glanced at him briefly, raising an eyebrow at his tone, then picked up a carving knife and started to sharpen it. "It's an outrageous order, to leave behind everything you know, to abandon your home and move the whole clan into a desert only the occasional caravan crosses. Where you don't know the wadis and hunting grounds, where to camp or to herd." The whetstone made a high, singing noise, it's rhythm underscoring the words. "All at the word of one lame woman, that claims to be the Spirit's chosen messenger."

Idir bristled. "She is their voice. I have seen them take possession of her-"

"But we can't know if that is true, and it truly is the Spirits, and not some insane fit of illness," the other interrupted. "How are we supposed to trust her? You Kel Agar follow Tiski's lead because that is what you have always done. Our chiefs can't do that. They have think for themselves, to argue, if they want to find the right thing to do," he told Idir calmly.

"It is the right thing to do!" Idir stood, his voice rising with him. "We need to leave, or the Spirits will leave us to die here. Doesn't you clan have it's own share of losses from the constant raids? Do you care that little for your lives?"

"Put that away and look at me, I am talking to you!" When the other did not give a reply right away, Idir stepped back into his personal space once more. "Most of the wadi's run dry, what camels we manage to raise are taken by the raiders! Yes we need to move and move now!

"And if we need to drag you like fractious camels to do it, we will. Aren't you the one following blindly after your leaders, who are simply too scared of anything unknown, like a bunch of herd animals that are too comfortable with their meager grazing to see the greens on the other side of the creek?"

His hands balled into fists, Idir stared down at the other, who calmly returned the stare. "At least I follow the one who know what she is doing!" With that, he turned and stomped away, towards his family's tent. The few people that had stood and observed his outburst gave way quickly.

Hidden behind his veil, the young man smiled as he watched Idir retreat.

\---

Amanai looked up from the flute he was etching with spiral patterns, when his sister sat down beside him on the rug in front of their tent. Setrit smiled at him, with a particular quirk to her lips that usually preceded a wealth of gossip she wished to impart.

"I heard you caused quite a ruckus with that Kel Agar boy yesterday," she said. "Mother says he yelled loud enough for the whole camp to hear."

Amanai set aside his tools, folding his hands. "I am sure he wanted everyone to know exactly how he felt about-" me "the matter."

"What were you fighting about anyway?"

"We weren't fighting. I just disagreed when he told me we should be packing already. And then I let him talk. He got angry all on his own." Amanai laughed. "It was adorable, really. How he kept egging on himself with barely any help from me until he was ready to explode," he told his sister with some relish, "I think his whole face turned red, and if he had not screamed at me, he might as well have hit me."

"So, he is cute, you say? Maybe I should take a look at him... It is time for me to find a husband, and if we truly move across the desert with all the clans, I'll have a lot of men to choose from..."

"He might just be your type, if you like them prickly." Amanai sobered. "But do you really want to leave our home, our familiar places and routes for good? Tiski speaks of the Spirits, but I don't think all the chiefs agree because they believe her, in her. Or disagree because they believe our homeland is here." He shook his head. "Some just relish in the sense of importance arguing gives them."

\---

Amanai had gone down to the small rivulet of water that ran from the camp through the rocks, to wash and relax for a while. It was quiet here, out of sight of the camp and the washing place for the women further upstream. The Kel Maro were a small clan, close-knit, and the constant presence of so many unfamiliar faces was wearing on him.

He briskly washed, splashing around in the water a little, until he grew cold. Amanai collected a few pebbles, pitching them into the water and watching the ripples they produced. Maybe he should look through the rubble later for a few pretty stones he could grind and turn into necklaces.

The sound of feet that dislodged a few stones alerted him to Idir's approach. The boy looked disgruntled to find the place already occupied, but it did not keep him from stepping closer, eyeing Amanai warily. "You."

Amanai paused in picking up another pebble, then smiled. "Yes, me. Who would have guessed?"  
Idir huffed, took a wide step over the stream. "This is where I come to think," Amanai continued, "it's a nice little place, isn't it?"

"To think." Idir did not seem too happy about meeting Amanai, in fact, he looked like he had come out here to have some thinking time to himself, too.

"Yes, I occasionally do that. Even if you might doubt my ability to do so, I am eminently capable of forming my own thoughts and opinions." Amanai could not resist needling him nonetheless.

A snort was Idir's reply to that. "Keep telling yourself that." Out here, Idir seemed more relaxed, a little less on his guard. The tenor of their interaction was almost friendly, even with an remaining undercurrent of tension.

"I believe in my aunt. I've seen what the visions do to her, how much urgency she feels. I believe this has to be done, we can't avoid it." Idir threw a hand into the direction of the camp. "Home is where those tents are, where the family is. Of course I will miss Tafialt, but staying here will mean losing that. The raiders will pick us off one by one, until none are left."

Idir had visibly warmed to the topic. Amanai nodded, motioning for him to go on. "The new places will be home too...and all the chiefs know it, too. They just don't want to tell Tiski she's right..."

And while Idir rambled, Amanai just watched him, an infuriating little smile just visible over the edge of his tagelmust.

"What? Say something, you-"

Reached out, pulled down Idir's own veil a little, too, and kissed him.

Idir made a surprised little "Hrk!" sound, his hands flailing about for a moment, then uncurling to latch onto the fabric of Amanai's shirt, and then Idir was kissing back roughly, clumsily, making their teeth clash. He pushed closer, rising up on his toes as Amanai let himself be pulled down. The hand on Idir's cheek moved, slipping into his hair, the thumb caressing the shell of Idir's ear briefly. Amanai's other arm cast out for balance, then wrapped around Idir to try and keep them from toppling into the little stream.

Shallow as it was, at this time of the year the water was still cold. Idir yelped, breaking the kiss and shook his foot vigorously, still holding onto Amanai for balance.

Finally, since taking offence at anything Amanai did or said seemed what Idir did best, he pulled away, shot him a look that clearly said 'This is all your fault!' and stalked off.

Letting out a chuckle, now that Idir wasn't there to hear him and rip his head off for it, Amanai made his own, more sedate way back to the camp.

\---

"The Dark People keep raiding smaller camps," Tiski croaked. Idir knelt down beside her and offered a cup of water. "They took two women from the Kel Gres." She nodded towards their leader, a gnarly old man called Busari, who had not taken a side in recent discussions yet.

"He is furious, of course, but how shall we exact revenge on an enemy we cannot find?" She handed back the cup. "We cannot afford to chase them all over Tafialt. They would just take the opportunity to strike elsewhere." Idir nodded. According to their scouts, at least ten different raiding parties were circling the Imahaq camps, occasionally wreaking havoc.

"If the Spirits can't move those hard-heads, maybe reason will," Idir replied, earning a scoffing noise from his aunt. "If they listened to reason, the Spirits would not have to use the head of every shaman in the clans as a drum to hammer out their will. No, they will argue, and waffle, until something really bad happens."

"The spirits grow restless. If the other clans cannot be convinced, they will be more than just displeased." One bony hand on Idir's shoulder, Tiski pushed herself into a more upright position. Her voice grew stronger. "We have loitered here far too long. Get me Takamat."

With a sigh, Idir left to find his mother.

\---

When Idir arrived at the rivulet, Amanai was waiting for him. He sat, one hand trailing through the water leisurely, comfortably leaning back on the other. His turban and veil sat neatly folded beside him. It gave Idir pause, the sight of Amanai's bare face and head all too unfamiliar.

He only sat down beside Amanai when he beckoned for Idir to sit, not a hint oft that frustrating smile anywhere on his face.

Amanai took Idir's hand, fingers clasped loosely around his wrist, their tips feathering over the skin, then pulled him closer. "You came."

Idir snorted. "You don't have to sound so surprised. Did you think I would run away?" he challenged. Amanai shook his head. "I thought I might have offended you." Without the veil, the small quirk of his lips was clearly visible. "Too much," he amended.

"I am offended by you and everything you stand for," Idir declared without heat, folding his fingers though Amanai's.

"Which is not much, but I guess you make up for it..." laughed Amanai, then leaned in and kissed Idir.

This time, it was expected, slow, and much more embarrassing than their first kiss. Idir felt his face heat up as he struggled to keep his eyes open, to keep some measure of control over what was going on.

He started when Amanai's tongue touched his, but the sound he made was hungry, a low groan that made Amanai shiver in turn. He grumbled when Amanai pulled back to pull the cloth off Idir's head, but when lips wandered over his cheek to his ear, he tilted his head to give Amanai more access. If Amanai's lips were warm, his tongue was slick heat as it circled the shell of his ear, then delving inside. The feel of it raced down Idir's spine, feeding the fire kindling in his gut. He tried to reciprocate, but for a moment, he could only lean his cheek against Amanai's and feel, as teeth closed on the sensitive lobe and tugged.

He found himself with his hands clawed into the fabric of Amanai's shirt, as Amanai went on to kiss along his jaw, occassionally placing a small bite. Then Amanai pulled back to look at Idir, his expression one of smug appraisal.

"Happy?" Idir asked, managing to unclench one hand and rub at one of the bite marks. At least Amanai was breathing as hard as he was, he noted.

"You look really good like that." Amanai's voice had turned rough, lower than his normal tone, and not quite steady. "Please, I want to see more."

Idir bit his lip - Amanai eyes flicked down - then nodded, pushing his burnous off his shoulders and then tugging at Amanai's shirt impatiently. Being pressed close, rocking against each other a little, felt incredible. He needed to know how it felt skin against bare skin.

They hastily stripped off their shirts, throwing them aside, to intertwine themselves again. Sighing as Amanai's hands ran over his sides and down his back, Idir kissed at Amanai's neck, placing an experimental lick at his collarbone. As Amanai's fingers dug into his lower back in response, he smiled. Maybe they understood each other just fine.

He set to repay Amanai for his ear, his hands exploring, rubbing over the flat nubs on his chest, caressing over ticklish places, sometimes scratching, while Amanai's hands wormed their way into Idir's pants, pulling them closer together so their cocks ground against each other with every movement. And kissing, an endless process of chasing Amanai's tongue in between little bites.

Somehow, it turned into a game of who could make the other react more strongly. Idir raked his nails down Amanai's back while he went for Idir's ear again, fingers digging into Idir's ass as he tangled the other hand in his hair.

He could not help writhing in Amanai's lap, grinding down and finally reaching between them to tear at the laces of Amanai's pants, tugging them open.

Fumbling inside, he took hold of Amanai's cock and was rewarded with a low curse breathed into his ear, Amanai's forehead coming to rest on his shoulder. A thumb rubbed over his lips, then the hand joined Idir's between them, pressing down on the bulge of Idir's erection. "Move," came the hoarse request, and he squeezed down again, curving his fingers, wiggeling them through the laces to brush against his cock, the tips grazing Idir's balls.

Idir shakily complied, rubbing over as much of Amanai's cock as he could reach, hindered by the fabric but too impatient to withdraw his hand and push it out of the way.

Every squeeze of Amanai's hand made his breath hitch, his own speeding up to match the pace.

When Amanai cried out and bit down on Idir's shoulder, the hand on his cock clenching hard, the knot in his gut finally broke loose, emptying him in long, shuddering bursts, robbing him of his senses.

When he found back to himself, they were slumped down on the pile of their clothes, Amanai breathing against his neck, their sticky fingers entwined between them.

There was a pebble digging in his side. He shoved at Amanai until he moved off his legs, squirming into a more comfortable position. Amanai looked up at him and smiled, raising a hand to tug at one of Idir's messy bangs. "Cute. Your head looks like a crow's nest."

Idir swatted his hand away. "Don't think I'll go easy on you now. I still think your chief is an idiot."

Amanai laughed, and pulled him down for a kiss.

\---

"Whose idea was this again?" Idir grumbled, quietly enough that only Amanai, riding right beside him, could hear. "None of us know each other well enough to work together passably." He gestured at the other riders. To try and evaluate the raider's threat, the clan chiefs' council had sent out a small and agile scouting group, consisting of a handful of young men from every clan. They were few enough to move fast and follow the tracks of enemy scouts, while many enough to hopefully withstand any actual encounters with them.

They had been riding for some time now, but aside from the occasional hoof mark here and there, they had seen neither hide nor hair of the enemy raiders. Idir was getting restless, had taken to chatter at Amanai to distract himself from the imagined feeling of hostile eyes at his back.

The dunes had risen into a series of smaller rock formations and their leader had called a short break. After the camels had settled down, the group huddled together in the meager shade to share around their water skins. Amanai had been sent up onto the rocks with two other sentries, so Idir sat with the group's leader, Karem. He was a tall, rawboned man with a voice like an angered old camel who did not have much respect for anyone, but as the best tracker in the group, the others followed his lead. He had been the one to pick up the faint traces of the raiders passing that had led them here.

Idir was contemplating a nap to calm his hyperactive nerves, when a commotion by the tethered-down camels pulled his attention.

There was movement, and then one of the camels screamed in pain. Someone was there between the animals, attacking the men who had been taking care of them.

Raiders! They streamed around the rocks from both sides, nearly as twice as many as the scouting party. Idir drew his sword. He heard Karem shout something, cursing the sentries. How had the raiders snuck up on them?

And then he had no time for worry anymore as he found himself facing a wild-eyed, white-robed raider who swung his sword like he intended to cleave Idir in half. The dodge and parry was just barely fast enough to save Idir's neck, only his cloak suffering a tear, but he managed to deflect the next strike, too, and the next, and then he had to duck and twist as another raider came at him, flinching when the blade of a knife nicked the side of his jaw.

He managed to dispatch one raider with a stab that dived beneath the opponents defense, then drew back for a moment as one of his comrades engaged the other. The cut on his jaw was shallow and bled only sluggishly, but it burned sharply, making him hiss and dab at it with his sleeve.

Idir took a quick look around, spotted Karem and hurried to his side, aiming an underhanded slash at the back of the raider closest to him.

Dirty, exhausted and bloody, the young men regrouped. Someone handed Idir a water bottle and a clean rag for his face, which he took and then sat down, next to a man trying to bandage a long cut along his calf.

While he pressed the wet cloth to his jaw, Idir let his eyes wander, taking stock. Two camels crippled, their tendons cut. Leaning back against one of his comrades sat Karem, badly hurt but alive. Two others were holding a wide compress to his side and wrapped the wound with wide strips torn from his cloak. Four dead, their bodies laid out a few paces to the side.

He could not find Amanai. None of the sentries had returned.

Handing back the water bottle, he dried his face then threw away the rag. The incline of the rock formation was steep, but he did not take the time to go around it, scrambling up the narrow crack that led to the top.

Amanai's hair lay spread out around his head, half fanned over his face and hiding his expression, but the boneless, slightly twisted sprawl of his limbs suggested that he had turned and fallen from his perch on the rock.

His skin was still warm, but there was no breath, no rise and fall of his chest.

Idir could not see a wound, only when he knelt down beside him and slowly, carefully turned him over he did find the place where a dagger had stabbed him, the back of his clothes soaked through with blood.

Heedless of his own clothes, Idir pulled Amanai into his lap, smoothing the hair out of his face. Amanai's expression was slack, some traces of surprise remaining. He had not heard his attacker coming.

Idir sat, mechanically combing through Amanai's hair, until the daylight waned and his comrades started calling for him. Then he slowly lifted the body off the ground and carried him back down, back to the others. Amanai was heavy, bigger than him, and Idir stumbled several times, but he kept on and did not let any of the others help him.

\---

"The spirits have given us their final warning." Holding onto Idir's shoulder with one hand, supported on the other side by the chief of the Iwillimmidan clan, a sturdy woman in her forties that had lost a son in the surprise attacks, Tiski stood. She was pale, and a little blood still crusted her chin, from when she had bitten through her lower lip during the vision.

"We cannot wait anymore. Tomorrow we will break camp. Those clans that have decided to heed the spirits warning are free to travel with us." She raised her hand briefly to quell the mess of voices that rose at her statement.

"I will not make that choice for you. All of you know what needs to be done. We will leave." Tiski looked around, holding the eyes of every other clan leader. "Decide for yourself." Idir felt her shake, as she returned to leaning on his shoulder. For hours, the spirits had taken possession of her, making her speak the same words over and over again:

"Ahaggar. The Free People must go there, where the backbone of the land touches the sky. It will be your new home. There you will be safe."

\---

The evening sun sent some last rays of light slanting over the warmed rocks, dunes and brush of the valley before sinking beyond the jagged stone ridge to their west. Idir sat on a small hill overlooking the new camp, arms wrapped around his knees, watching the bustling activity.

Over there the Kel Iwillimmidan at set up their tents, apart from the rest of them just a little, for they would break camp and move further east in a few days.

At one side of the wadi's water hole, Tiski and the other shamans had grouped their tents in a half-circle, sitting at a camp fire in their midst, locked in an animated debate once more.

On the edge of the camp closest to Idir's vantage point, Takamat and Setrit were building a tent. The stakes and clothed roof were lashed together already, one side flapping open as the women were dithering over rugs and household implements, his mother instructing the younger woman. Soon, this tent would be Idir's home.

Idir would join them down there soon, to take possession of it, to acquaint himself better with his wife.  
But it was warm out here still, and he desperately wanted to hold onto the quiet of the moment a while longer. He reached up with one hand, touching the small bone he wore on a leather thong around his neck.

Idir jumped a little when arms wrapped around him from behind, cool fingers almost ticklishly light running down Idir's arms to interlace with his. A chin rested on Idir's shoulder, then he felt lips brush his ear. "Why so solemn?" Amanai asked. A breath feathered through the fine hair at Idir's nape, letting a small shiver run down his spine.

"We are Kel Ahaggar now. Everything is different. I just cannot get used to it," Idir admitted. "The shape of the mountains, the horizon is all wrong. Searching for faces in the morning crowds and sometimes finding strangers instead of my old neighbors. That I have a wife now, that my mother reluctantly approves of."

Amanai's chuckle provoked another pleasant little shiver. "And don't you dare to treat her badly. My sister is a strong woman, both strong-headed and inventive. You would be made to regret dearly if you crossed her wrong." A kiss was dropped on the edge of Idir's jaw, just where a thin scar ended.

Idir kept his eyes on the camp, leaning back into Amanai's embrace, tilting his head a little so his neck was exposed. He was rewarded with the feeling of lips curving upwards, the teasing flick of a tongue. "I wouldn't dream of it," he replied, "that woman is probably as devious as you are."

"More devious than you ever will be." Amanai's voice was rich with amusement. "Just don't throw a tantrum. It will only encourage her."

"Your strange turn-ons run in the family, I see."

"Mhmm." When arms around Idir loosened, the embrace lifting away, Idir sighed. "Stay a little longer?" he asked. After a moment, cool fingers carded through his hair, slipping under the edge of his turban.

"Of course." Amanai murmured into his ear. "I will always be here."

  
[Amanai: Idir](http://cayra.deviantart.com/art/Amanai-Idir-205234861) by ~[cayra](http://cayra.deviantart.com/) on [deviantART](http://www.deviantart.com)

End.


End file.
